We must change the conversation on domestic violence

Committing a crime against a partner should be an aggravating rather than a mitigating factor, although, for now at least, the Irish system courts seem to disagree, writes Clodagh Finn.

If a single fact jumped off the pages of yesterday’s stark Women’s Aid report on the 216 women who died violently in Ireland since 1996, it was this: The Irish justice system goes easier on a man if he kills a partner or ex-partner, as opposed to a stranger.

Men who kill a wife, girlfriend, or ex-partner are more likely to be charged with manslaughter rather than murder, and they will spend less time in jail than men who kill women in other circumstances.